It is not realistic with the new FFP rule and the incoming wage cap. You have to accept some "okay" level players to fill in the squad and develop the players to better level yourself. Look at Liverpool's midfield. Some of the names were not anywhere near 1st choice when they transferred. It is the manager's job to design a system to get best out of the squad make it easy for squad fillers to contribute and not to expose their weakness. And it is the sporting director's job to bring in players who can compliment each other instead of getting players not fitting to play with each other. In my views they did a crap job in squad planning and should not be trusted onwards. It is baffling why the new director not in charge of this winter window.
I do agree that we can't have or afford under the rules a full squad of superstars. I also agree they have done a crap job in squad planning. I think we have sat back and allowed the new sporting director time to get his feet under the table whilst Txikki spends a year saying farewell and emptying his office and its come back to bite us on the arse.
A player like Alvarez is infinitely better than Doku, Savi, Nunes, Rico and Phillips (I know they don't play the same position) but a place or a promise or a wage rise should have been given to him to make him stay. I don't buy this saying if players want to leave then they can leave. We offer enough early big contracts to other players to keep them from leaving. All the new buys at times have shown some good signs because at the end of the day they are averagely good players, maybe above average but they are not great players. And whilst we can't buy every world class player we should be buying very good or great players.
I look at Savi who shows some promise but looks scared of his own shadow and if he hasn't been told from day one or learnt from his first game that he needs to toughen up and get on with it then he will never learn. I've lost count of the times he's bottled out, feigned injury or just stopped running and threw his arms up. That's not good enough. One or two games ok but learn and learn quickly.
Doku reminds me of that gif of a horse playing with a balloon. Everton's 4 v 2 last week started out because he failed to control a ball. Neither of them along with others even attempt to jump and head the ball.
Rico never stops turning his back on a shot, he did it again v Everton and for the 3rd Feyenoord goal I thought he should have even attempted to go for a challenge with a header instead of standing on the goal line and letting the player have a free header at goal. It could have put him off enough to miss. These are real basics that are drummed into you as a kid. You don't need to be elite to do these.
I've watched City go through years of desperate football and desperate off field management. We are a diferent beast now and I'm confident we will sort it soon enough. Hopefully they will have learnt from their mistakes. The club has been un the up and these are mistakes to be fair they have not made since the takeover.
